Escaped Thoughts

Today's deceptively simple quiz: Fill in the blank in the title. Give both the spelling and pronunciation of the missing word.

Category: Language

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While setting up the new site I did a bit of rearranging, since I wasn't worried about preserving existing links. In the process, I was trying to decide where to put this whole section—I had used /blog/ before, but I dislike the word on aesthetic principles. I decided on weblog, which is less ugly (albeit a bit harder to say), but not before I got to thinking about the development of the term; I've heard the argument somewhere that both blog and weblog are equally silly, because it's just a new medium for something like a journal (not really a new form of communication) and therefore doesn't deserve a word.

Now even if one accepts the idea that it's not a fundamentally new style of communication (I don't) there's plenty of precedent for creating new words or phrases when something is adapted to/adopted by a new medium. Which brings me to today's “quiz”: list in the comments as many such words or phrases as you can think of. Points will be awarded for each non-duplicate answer that is accepted by a panel of expert judges*.

To get the ball rolling: television show

Update: Laura (despite now being hugely in the lead) thought the criteria needed some clarification. Specifically, the term itself must clearly indicate the appropriation of the old word for some new medium. So “radio play” counts, but “forum” doesn't.

* Panel of expert judges may or may not actually exist. No purchase necessary to play.

Category: Language

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To really get things started right, I'm adding a bonus round to this quiz. I was thinking about the famous quote about the rule against ending sentences with prepositions, generally attributed to Churchill: “This is the sort of (English | bloody nonsense | arrant pedantry) up with which I will not put!” As I thought about it, I realized that it is not only awkward, but grammatically incorrect as well. What is the error?

Category: Language

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That's right, it's back by popular demand! I fully intend for it to be a (semi-)regular feature, and in celebration of that commitment I have created a new language category (and moved my previous language-related posts into it).

This week's quiz has a whole host of answers, so everyone can be a winner. Yes, you there, you could be a winner! Step right up! 100 points per correct answer! The goal is to give the origin of as many of the following names for days of the week as possible—no full etymology necessary, just the root meaning (i.e., who or what it is named for):

English: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
French: Dimanche, Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi
German: Sonntag, Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag

Have at!

Category: Language

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I think the em-dash—that fantastically useful divider—is rapidly replacing the comma as my most over-used punctuation mark. Although parentheses and semi-colons (some of my other favorite punctuators) tend to creep in fairly often as well; maybe I just need to write down fewer of my tangential thoughts?

Category: Language

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What is the gender-neutral, singular word for cow or bull (in the standard bovine usage—“whale”, “elephant”, and the like will not be accepted)?

I've posted the answer to the last quiz; I'll try to be more prompt this time. Once again, no looking it up before answering!

Category: Language

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This one requires that you answer in the comments, so don't be shy! Here's the quiz: define the words “biannually” and “bimonthly”. No cheating by looking it up! Answer based on your current knowledge only.

Category: Language

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Overheard outside of the "English for Engineers" class, while people were waiting for it to start, presumably discussing the about-to-be-turned-in draft of a group paper: "I just made a few semantic changes, to make the sentences flow better"" Apparently, altering the fundamental meaning of sentences is fine, so long as you sound good when you are done.

'Semantic' is right up there with 'ironic' as one of the most poorly used words in the English language. It's really much worse though, because while ironic has only expanded to include a lot more than it originally meant, semantic is used almost exclusively as the exact opposite of its actual meaning—in fact, if people knew they were doing it, they would be being ironic (but that in itself is not ironic, it's just kind of funny).

Of course, it's almost certainly the fault of the phrase "arguing semantics", which is a phrase that almost no-one who uses it actually understands. Being curious about language, I often wonder how thing like that happen. All I can think is that it was used to dismiss people who were trying to twist things by claiming that some word or another didn't really stand for its obvious meaning. So, if I say "I like blue better than red", and you say, "Yes, but what do you mean by blue? Do you prefer the shorter wavelength of the light? Do you like things that absorb blue light better, or things that reflect blue light?" then you are just arguing semantics; you are arguing about the meaning of the word blue, when you know full well that all I'm saying is that, given the choice between a blue shirt and a red shirt, I'll take the blue one.

But of course, people just hear it used dismissively, so they infer that it means arguing about things that aren't important, and then assume that semantics are the piddly details that don't matter. And so, as a result, many people think that syntax and semantics are the same thing, instead of fundamental opposites.

But, since it is used incorrectly so often, the issue of how it should be used is, in the end, a moot point

Category: Language

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